The Standard Bank of South Africa to Launch Blockchain for Overseas Exchange Services

According to reports by FinExtra ( fintech news outlet) on February 28, the Standard Bank of South Africa will be launching its privately developed blockchain in order to enable overseas exchange trades on behalf of corporate clients.

This platform is expected to be ready and launched in the second half of 2019, based on the Hyperledger Fabric, which is essentially a foundation for developing applications and solutions for companies with a standard infrastructure. The South African bank also has plans of connecting Shyft (a foreign currency trading app) to the blockchain platform.

This new system which is driven on the blockchain is expected to accelerate international trade processing, foreign exchange payments as well as settlements. Apart from these, The Standard Bank also aspires to boost transparency of transactions, as every document will be accessible and available in real time for all parties.

The head of Foreign exchange for Standard Bank, Richard de Roos says ‘ blockchain solution is likely to reduce the incidence of trade failure while increasing regulatory transparency and improving the visibility of liquidity.’ Initially, the provided solution will be used by Standard Bank and its partner, Stanbic Bank (Uganda) along with all the third parties which are directly involved in trades.

Furthermore, the banks in South Africa work hand in hand with the Industrial and Commercial Banks (ICBC) of China, and this legitimate blockchain can further be extended to that partnership. The head of Foreign Exchange for Standard Bank, De Roos also confirmed that at press time, the bank along with twenty of its franchises is negotiating with the ICBC in order to push the hub into Asia.

Earlier in 2019, a professionally working group of South African financial regulatory organization came out with a consultation paper which mainly focused on cryptocurrencies. This paper had the officials of the country call for public inputs in order to develop a cryptocurrency regulation policy for South Africa further.

Moeen Khan is a Content Specialist and Social Media Writer who actively writes about Blockchain Technology and Cryptocurrencies at Coinpublish. He is also interested in topics like politics and finance. Moeen has previously worked with two start-up companies in New Delhi that were in the financial sector. He has worked with organizations like NDTV Goodtimes and Magicbricks (TOI Group). This experience has given him a broad knowledge base upon which he is working to build further through learning and practice.

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